MANILA – The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has launched a five-year initiative to secure long-term protection and conservation for the Philippine Rise, a submarine inactive volcanic plateau located east of Luzon in the Philippine Sea.
In a news release Friday, Environment Secretary Raphael Lotilla said the initiative aims to put in place lasting safeguards for one of the nation’s most important but least understood offshore ecosystems.
He said benefits from the Philippine Rise, formerly Benham Rise, extend not only to the Philippines but to the global community as well.
“We have the responsibility to take care of the biodiversity in that area,” Lotilla said, adding that understanding what lies within the vast strategic undersea plateau is essential to ensuring its sustainable use and long-term protection.
The effort centers on the Philippine Rise Conservation Project, which aims to strengthen management of the Philippine Rise Marine Resource Reserve (PRMRR) and advance its inclusion under the Expanded National Integrated Protected Areas System.
The program, called PRICELESS or the Philippine Rise Integrated Conservation for Enduring Legacies through Ecosystem Support Services, is implemented by the DENR through its Biodiversity Management Bureau (BMB), in partnership with Conservation International and Partnerships in Environmental Management for the Seas of East Asia, and funded by the Global Environment Facility.
Under Presidential Proclamation No. 489 signed in 2018, a total of 434,517 hectares of the Philippine Rise were designated as the PRMRR, including a 49,684-hectare Strict Protection Zone and a 352,390-hectare Multiple Use Zone co-managed by the DENR and the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR).
The DENR said PRICELESS focuses on improving governance, inter-agency coordination, and enforcement, curbing illegal fishing, and promoting sustainable resource use for nearby coastal communities.
“It aims to curb illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing, resolve overlapping institutional mandates, and enhance scientific monitoring by improving data generation and information-sharing among agencies,” it said. (PNA)